Jordan Buys is Loaded (E8 7a) and a Snap Decision

Jordan Buys has made the long-awaited second ascent of Loaded (E8 7a) at Ilkley Quarry, Yorkshire.

Loaded, a striking quarried gritstone arete, has repelled many would-be repeaters over the years, despite being reasonably safe. The F8b level of climbing on thin and technical crimps, in a run-out position, enough to put a stopper on most people's efforts.

The line breaks rightwards from halfway up the classic finger locking line of Wellington Crack (E4 6a), where a desperate sequence of sidepulls lands you on an obvious crimp on the arete. From here it just gets harder.

The route has changed slightly since the first ascent by John Dunne back in 1997. Bradford Council removed a huge capping block from the top of the route, which whilst not affecting the climbing, did keep Loaded and Wellington Crack in a much cleaner state than they are now. Green lichen has proliferated on that face.

Jordan commented to UKC:

"I found it really greasy rock, day one involved chalking, brushing and doing the thing in small overlapping sections. Go home. Come back next day and just have a blast through. Guess it's the way I sport climb. Why bother top roping it in one. Save that for the big send, you don't want to have done it twice..!"

The news was broken on the UKC forums a couple of days ago by John Roberts, who wrote up an account of the day on his blog. More details: UKC Forums.

Naomi Buys Repeats Snap Decision - E7 6c

On the same day as Jordan climbed Loaded, another of John Dunne's Ilkley Quarry routes had a repeat. Naomi Buys repeated Snap Decision (E7 6c) on the wall to the right of Loaded.

Snap Decision is a technical wall and groove climb which launches from easier ground on to a hanging flake, passes a reportedly reasonable peg, before committing to a thin and balancy groove with a roof top-out.

The upper groove once sported a very poor peg, but this has now bitten the dust.

Naomi has also been climbing very well on the sport routes this year with ascents of GBH (8a+) and Raindogs (8a) at Malham, as well as The Bulge (7c+/8a) at Kilnsey.